How many roads?

Driving around Skye takes longer than you would think. The Isle of Skye is not large, 80kms long and about 35kms wide (at the widest point). Many of the roads hug the windy coast and are spectacular, but not built for speed. It takes well over an hour to get to many places.

Many of the roads on Skye are ‘single track’ roads, which means they are single lane roads with passing places. These are a little tricky. Careful driving means keeping an eye out in the distance to see what is coming the other way. When a vehicle comes the solution is to stop at the closest passing place. They pass, both drivers wave and it is very charming. Sometimes however, both drivers stop at a designated passing place and there is an ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ stand-off. Worse is when cars don't see each other and both arrive in the middle of the single lane road head-on and then one is required to reverse back. If someone is close behind, drivers are expected to pull over at the next passing point so the faster car can safely overtake.

Added to this challenging scene are those VW upstarts: Audi. With due respect to any Audi driver who might be reading this blog, our experience in many countries is that road rules apply to all people, except it seems Audi drivers. Audi’s presume to be driven at any speed, in any place and all other drivers are expected to move out of the way. Interesting!

In the mid-winter the single-track roads are fine as long as you can see other cars through the mist and keep clear of sheep. However, when thousands of tourists, many in huge motorhomes, descend on these roads in the summer, locals say it becomes a nightmare. Add to the mix the fact that most tourists are used to driving on the opposite side of the road you can begin to see that driving around Skye in summer becomes incredibly difficult, slow and at times dangerous.

We are pleased that in the winter the narrow roads of Skye are, without doubt, the roads less travelled.